I Studied This for Five Years. You Have an Opinion

One of my 'favourite' pastimes (as in, not) is when I find myself discussing something I know a lot about with a person who knows … less much about it. Being an anthropologist, 'something I know a lot about' will usually be along the lines of social and cultural determination, how do we define power, what are human rights really. That sort of thing. Gender is one of my favourite topics (for real), and so I spend a lot of time reading about it, thinking about it, researching, how do we understand female sexuality, how do we socially define women? I may not be the most expert in the whole wide world, but I dare say I do know my stuff.

Så slap dog af, det var jo bare for sjov!

Jeg er tilbage på bloggen! Juhu! Og starter hårdt ud efter pausen (som skyldtes en arbejdsplads hvor ”vi har ytringsfrihed, men...”) med en historie, jeg hørte sidste år i toget. Der er en pointe med den, så stick with me.

En gruppe unge damer skulle på Skanderborg-festival, og sludrede løs på vejen dertil, så hele togvognen kunne overhøre, hvordan de gav hinanden tips og advarsler. Særligt det sidste: det nye fede blandt ungdommen nu til dags er åbenbart, at når man er stærkt beruset på en festival, og de unge mænd spiller øl-bowling, og der går en kvinde forbi, de synes ser pæn ud, må en af dem råbe ”tiger-mis!”, og derefter løbe efter hende, og vælte hende omkuld lige der midt i det hele, hvad enten hun synes det er sjovt eller ej. Så bare lige så I ved det, piger, hvis I ser nogen, der spiller øl-bowling, så gå langt udenom!

Walking Down the Street In Her 6 Inch Heels. Symbolic Femininity

You can vividly imagine it, you probably see it every day. Young and less young ladies walking along the streets, in high high high heels, with varying degrees of agility, looking more or less like ducks (sorry, but really). Most of the time, people reach their destination without incident, just once in a while someone smacks their face into the sidewalk and all look embarrassed and the lady gets to her feet and hurries on her way hoping nobody will remember her face. Because for some reason, this is almost invariably done by individuals of the female species. But what's the deal? Why would anybody do the duckwalk and willingly accept the increased risk of knocking out a couple of front teeth for no apparent reason?

Run for Your Life – before you lose it

Today a little run-through of jealousy in popular culture. Or rather, in a few selected songs. Not your old-style, relatively innocent ”my stomach hurts when Bob/ette is talking to someone who's not me” jealousy, but when it veers into violence and potential death. Jumping from songs to dead people might seem like a long shot, but at least in some cases it isn't that much of a leap.

Society Against the State

In 1648 a bunch of guys sat down and decided that the best way to end wars of religion would be to create states. Sovereign states with sovereign rulers, and what happened inside those states was no one's business but the rulers'. People eventually stopped warring over religion, at least in Europe – they started warring “internationally” instead, as states became nations and saw in themselves something intrinsically unique to their respective nations that must be defended at all costs. Bloodshed ensued. Within the last 100 years the entire planet has been fitted into a neat pattern of nations, states, nation states, term it as you please, nice coloured spaces on the map, characterised by their internal affairs being nobody's business but their own. It is seen as a result of 'development', as something inevitable, as all societies must eventually progress towards having a State, and this is a Good Thing. While we're at last shedding some of the “my genocide is nobody's business but my own” thinking, and people are also beginning to get a grip of why “everybody must develop so as to be as civilised as us” may be deemed offensive, that a state should be inevitable is not so easily forgotten. Historians and other clever people sought out evidence in the sources of history to show why all peoples must eventually develop state structures in order to govern themselves, as not having a ruling power is equal to being Neanderthals, to paraphrase only slightly. Which brings me to what I want to present to you today. Is the State inevitable?

Gender equality. Right here, right now?

I originally wanted to post this on the 8th of March, being International Women's Day, but something known as 'real life' got in way. Anyway, I would like to grab the occasion to take a look at how all that feminism* and gender equality is working out. Right here, right now. I have talked about it before, in Spain, and I gave an overview of the situation on the streets of Denmark. But really, where are we?

”But my hairdresser's gay!”

When I was young and innocent and went to school, maybe around 10-12 years old, a 'riddle' that came up from time to time was the one of ”should a gay man go to the men's or ladies' room to pee?” Barely knowing what that meant we'd all ponder this so seemingly difficult question and never reach a satisfactory conclusion.* Youthful ignorance, excuse it as, you may. I grew up and learned the ways of the world (and common sense); this was not so for all. Some still say weird, vile or simply ignorant stuff to anybody not fitting into a heteronormative conception of how people are supposed to be.

Army of Lovers

Today I'll make it in a happy and not so serious tune – let's listen to some music! I recently rediscovered Army of Lovers (happens every once a year or so), and wanted to share their brilliantness with everybody.

Jolene, If He Wants to Go, You May Keep My Man

When talking intimate relationships, all sorts of stuff is relevant; who, what, how, when, is it even the right person? And much prose and music has been made about just about every aspect of all of this mess (no, really, it can be a mess, I'm sure you agree). One thing to worry about, or that people worry about whether they ought to or not, is: will that special someone stick around? Will somebody come and whisk away your someone?

Vagina Dentata

Over at the local art museum, Aros, there's a particular piece of art that continues to intrigue me. Consumer's Guide to Safe Sex by Thomas Bruun (1988) is actually just a box. It has on its front a picture of the female intimate parts, cut out from, presumably, a porn magazine. It carries instructions on how to use the paper and a round hole cut where the vulva would be, with some very graphic language at that. Also, in my opinion, rather objectifying, but I'll get back to that. The hole in the paper fits a hole in the entire box, thus constructing a sex machine into which you may insert your penis (be you in the possession of a such). So to speak. For if curiosity overwhelms you and you look into the hole meant for the penis, you see – a mouse trap. If you use the machine: Snap. Ouchy. The machine bites back. A Vagina Dentata.

Når i Danmark de dig tiltale

Sidste sommer skrev jeg et længere indlæg om, hvordan jeg oplevede street harassment i Spanien. Kort opsummeret for ikke spansk-læsende brokkede jeg mig langt væk over ikke at kunne læse en bog på stranden i fred, uden at den ene og den anden mandsperson spurgte til mit helbred, min alder, min civilstatus eller kommenterede andre menneskers bryststørrelse. Jeg erklærede også en intention om for fremtiden at give svar på tiltale, og fortælle d'herrer, hvad jeg mener om deres opførsel (også de damer når nødvendigt). Et halvt års tid og et nyt land senere finder jeg øjeblikket inde at vende tilbage til emnet og undersøge, om jeg har fulgt mit eget fortsæt, og om konteksten gør en forskel, for både kommentarer og reaktioner.

Normalising period-talks

Recently I caught myself casually passing out the information of my period having started that same day, to a person I didn't really know all that well, who had no particular reason to be interested in my period-schedule, and, most importantly, was of the male gender – the horror! He took the information with a straight face (I don't honestly think he cared), and since we're not prepubescent children, he ought to be acquainted with the concept anyway. What interested me on an afterthought was rather my own reaction of “oh sh.. oh well. He took it nicely, so should be cool.” Why would I react that way?

If you see a stranger on a bus...

Just another silent onlooker

Already upon entering the bus, they catch my attention. It's Saturday night, Halloween celebration day, and people are out partying. I left my party early and am taking the first night bus, it's barely 1 am. They're bent over her bag, obviously drunk, and she screams to him about finding 'it'. (Turns out she's referring to his bus-ticket.) I enter the bus, pick my seat and start looking for my mp3-player and my half-eaten snack.

They finally enter the bus, he loudly thanks the driver and informs that he's the nicest guy they met today. They discuss about which seats to pick, and she sits down and yells at him to come and sit next to her.

He addresses some other bus passengers, first in Danish, but switches to English when he realises they're foreigners. Begins complaining about her, how she talks to him. How would random bus guy react if his girlfriend gave him orders? (Bus guy would do as told.) And if she said so and so? (Still the same.) And so on, making more and more detailed questions. Someone behind me says, “you're not getting any sympathy, cut it out.” He ignores this.

Finally he sits next to her, wishing the other couple and me a good night. Shortly afterwards a friend of the foreign couple enters the bus, and they discuss exams and other everyday events. Within minutes he's back. Is he interrupting? No no.. he isn't. And he begins talking, mostly offending* her, and once in a while she offends him, too, asking him to come and sit down. She asks for cigarettes, he offends her, informs her she can't smoke inside the bus. She asks for them again, he gives in, throw them at her, saying, “you can have your fucking cigarettes.” Goes on discussing with the foreigners, exchanging life stories, trying to convince the friend to start thai boxing. The foreign couple are aware that I'm following the scene, but say nothing.

Blowjobs, Rape and Preeclampsia

Hello again! This time around in English, perhaps some of you will appreciate that ;)

Today the subject will be more serious, I'll be discussing science! And it's implications for society, and I'll even touch upon censorship of science. But let me start with a little story about how I got to find the particular piece of science that lead to all these reflections.

So, there I was, procrastinating and flipping through random web pages, when I came upon this article, ”Eight things you didn’t know you could do with human sperm” - fascinating reading, though I personally wouldn't eat anything cooked with sperm, and also... skin softener. Seriously? Just.. ew.

Escenas españolas

Antes que todo, perdonadme por tardar tanto en actualizar el blog. Mi pc personal ha decidido dejar el mundo de ordenadores funcionantes, y no he podido acceder a algo tan simple como blogspot.com. (En efecto, esto se publica desde un ordenador que apenas se le ve la pantalla.. espero volver pronto con mejores condiciones de trabajo!)

De todas formas, esta vez trataré un tema que superficialmente puede parecer más puntual, pero aún así pienso que tiene una influencia más alargada y por eso también una cierta importancia.

Empecemos con algunos escenarios que he visto e vivido durante mi año en Barcelona y viajando por España.

Men wink at me

And it annoys me. Immensely. Except when it sends my heart racing and I smile like an idiot for the rest of the day. And perhaps even then. Most of the time it annoys me.

Today I shall philosopher a bit about winking. Why do people do it, what do they want to tell the world, and why do winkers generally seem to be men?

Now, much has been written about this topic (just try googling it), and I have done a bit of research besides my involuntary fieldwork (being female in Barcelona). Below I will present to you some of my most important findings.

First, the statistics, after the jump.

The Catholic Church and reproductive freedom in Italy, part 2 of 2: Abortion and legislation

First of all, excuse me for the long absence. A full-time job out of nowhere interfered with my plans of spending all day long writing blogs about Italy! But now, on to the second instalment of my theme on the catholic church and reproductive freedom in Italy.

Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978. Due to lobbying from Catholic organisations a condition was put into legislation which allowed doctors to refuse to carry out abortions on grounds of their religious beliefs. This is also the case in other European countries, but after the jump I will get to why it is particularly problematic in Italy.